1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a user interface system, in particular, a user interface including multiple independent software parts, in which, by the cooperation of the multiple independent software parts, an operation menu is displayed and the contents of the displayed operation menu are transferred in accordance with the operation of selecting the operation menu. A processing requirement designated by the operation input is understood and practiced from the operation menu thus displayed, and thereby, the system information of said user interface apparatus is displayed.
2. Discussion of the Background
In recent years, computer hardware efficiency has improved, and the low cost of the hardware as fallen. Also, the scale of software has increased, and the extent of the complicated problems to be solved have steadily grown year by year.
On the other hand, there is a tendency that the research and development cycle of the software goods or the merchandise assembled with those software goods has shortened year by year. In such an environment, the development efficiency in the software industry must improve.
One of the methods of solving such problems as mentioned above is to create separate parts of the software. In such method, a software system is constructed with plural independent software parts, and the software parts thus constructed are reused in another software system per a unit of such software part. Thereby, the efficiency of the development of medium and long range software can be further improved.
On the other hand, there arises a problem peculiar to the area of such problems in the user interface apparatus of a facsimile device, etc. Namely, the property of the user interface software and the control method thereof are not separated from each other. As the result, when a change in the operation flow occurs by changing the application, the software for controlling the operation flow cannot be applied to the above-mentioned user interface. Therefore, the software cannot be reused after changing the application.
For this reason, in spite of the fact that the operation flow is constructed with the menu and the transferring thereof, it is necessary to update or develop a new software for both the controlling side and the controlled side in the software.
Furthermore, even though the user interface includes similar control systems, the respective software programs are not separated from each other. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare program codes that closely resemble one another for the respective control systems.
Even though the user interface is constructed such that the common parts of the software programs are formed in a module and the respective parts are called out, the calling of respective parts further complicates matters. Additionally, modules not valuable for reuse tend to be created. For this reason, it is necessary to develop different program codes event if the new user interface has an operation and structure very similar to the older user interface.
Heretofore, the background art regarding the user interface has been described. However, according to such background art, there exists no advantageous functional effect for the user interface as mentioned above.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to solve the problems of the background art as mentioned heretofore.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a user interface capable of easily reusing software objects.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a user interface including plural independent software objects, in which, by the cooperation of the plural independent software objects, an operation menu is displayed. The contents of the displayed operation menu are transferred in accordance with the operation of selecting the operation menu, and a processing requirement designated by the operation input is understood and practiced from the operation menu thus displayed. Thereby, the system information of the user interface apparatus is displayed.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of reusing the software objects in the user interface apparatus.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of realizing a user interface system including the steps of displaying an operation menu, transferring the contents of the displayed operation menu in accordance with the operation of selecting the operation menu, understanding and practicing a processing requirement designated by the operation input from the displayed operation menu, and thereby display the system information of the user interface apparatus.
In order to solve the aforementioned subject matter, according to a first aspect of the present invention, a user interface system includes plural independent software objects.
By the cooperation of the plural independent software objects, an operation menu is displayed and the contents of the displayed operation menu are transferred in accordance with the operation of selecting the operation menu. A processing requirement designated by the operation input is understood and practiced from said operation menu thus displayed, and thereby the system information of said user interface apparatus is displayed. In the user interface apparatus, a menu flow part serving as a first software object for controlling the transferring of the operation menu and an operation object serving as a second software object for controlling the operation input are constructed as independent objects in cooperation with each other.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the menu flow object includes of a flow information object serving as a third software object for capturing the transferring of the menu as a static information and a flow control object serving as a fourth software object for deciding the transferring of the menu in accordance with the operation of selecting the menu, both of which are the independent object cooperating with each other.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the operation object includes of an operational information memorizing object serving as a fifth software object for memorizing the contents of the operation and an operation controlling object serving as an object for registering, changing, and deleting the inputted operation, both of which are independent objects cooperating with each other.